


Our Scars

by SpicyReyes



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 03:34:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7250326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an AU where your soulmate's bruises and scars show up on your body, Kingsman plays out a little differently. </p><p>Eggsy is convinced that this man, this "Harry Hart," is his soulmate.<br/>He's just really, really wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't resist, sorry.  
> Also, tenses jump from past to present halfway through this, sorry. I'm bad with Engl  
> Auch hier tut mir leid.

Soulmates, Eideard Giles had always thought, were a stupid concept. 

Well, scratch that, not _always_ thought. When he was little, the idea of having one person out there who was destined for you? That was amazing. 

However, the thing was, as he grew up in a class with kids who were turning up with cuts and bruises that they didn’t get themselves and he got nothing, he became disillusioned. 

The marks of your soulmate’s body, from bruises and scratches to tattoos, showed up on your body. 

And yet, here Eideard was, a whole 14 years old, and he’d never gotten a single mark that wasn’t accounted for. All his bruises were his, he had no tattoos, nothing. 

He went to the library the same day he realized this, and looked up books on soulmates.

What he found scared him - not _everyone_ had a soulmate. Some people were just born without them. Genetic anomalies, destined to be alone, or with someone who’d lost a soulmate in the past, something like that. 

His worst fears had been confirmed.

He had no soulmate. 

 

He got over the heartbreak by becoming a bit of a rebel. Breaking and entering, petty theft, and habitual lying became his M.O. 

He kept this up all through his educational career, through University, until one day he broke into a building to see a man in a suit sitting casually on the couch, who turned and smiled at him, as though he hadn’t just picked the lock to get in. 

“Ah, Mister Giles,” the man said, and Eideard froze. “Come, sit. I’ve been waiting on you.”

“How do you know my name?”

“How does anyone?” The man replied. 

“That’s not an answer.” 

The man smiled, and waved at a the coffee table, where a manilla envelope sat. “That’s for you.”

Cautiously, Eideard approached. Opened the folder. Inside was a series of papers, all with information about…

…Him. 

“What the fuck?”

The man held out a hand, and Eideard handed the papers over. He set them aside. “I am known as Arthur. I belong to a group that has taken an interest in your skillset. It so happens that we’re looking for new members. Interested?”

Well, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. 

 

He makes it through training with ease. Picks an English bulldog as his partner. Pulls the trigger with tears in his eyes. Cries with relief when he finds it’s a blank. 

He’s given a new name, then. _Merlin._

He wears it well. 

 

He’s been working for Kingsman for ten years, now the ripe age of 27, when it happens. 

He’s sitting at his desk, working with his computer, trying to get the _stupid program_ to run a proper algorithm, when he feels his khakis sticking to his leg. 

He looks down at his leg to see something terrifying: blood. 

Only the smallest amount, a tiny spot, but still. Blood. He pulls up the leg of his trousers and looks at his knee, to see a small scrape. 

He looks around, looking for something that could’ve caused it, but…nothing. 

It takes him an embarrassingly long time to catch on. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he murmured, staring at the wound. 

His soulmate.

His fucking soulmate.

Who was, apparently, _over twenty years younger than him._

Fucking amazing.

 

Eggsy is two when he scrapes his knee in a fall at the park and starts crying. He thinks it’s the worst thing he’s felt in his life…

Until age three, when he feels a bullet wound for the first time.

“He was _shot?”_ He hears his mother demand. 

“His soulmate was,” the doctor corrects, calmly. “Luckily, it was clean. I don’t know who your son’s soulmate is, but whoever they are, they’re being hunted by someone who knows what they’re doing.” 

His mother is terrified. Eggsy just wants to go home. 

 

Eideard’s first thought when he’s shot during a field mission is, _shit, my soulmate’s just a kid._

The next thing he does when he’s cleared by medical is go to Arthur and request a reprieve from field duty. He is very understanding when it’s explained to him, and gives Eideard a new position as the handler for field agents. Basically, he makes sure they don’t cock it up. 

He also gets put in charge of new recruits, which doesn’t seem to really matter. Especially since they _never_ get new recruits. 

At least, they didn’t often. 

 

Eggsy is seven when he learns his dad isn’t coming home anymore. He has his mother help him put the medal on a necklace, and wears it all the time. When the man gives it to him, though, he asks him a question - just one, with a hopeful tone.

“Have you ever been shot?” 

With a confused look, the man answers, “Once, a few years ago.”

Eggsy grins. “When I’m older, let’s be friends.” 

The man laughs, but he agrees.

Eggsy is determined that this man is his soulmate. 

After all, he’s never met anyone else that’s been shot. 

 

The years pass with little incident on Merlin’s end, but it’s only a couple years of peace before he starts developing bruises. 

Not just the occasional trip-and-fall bruise, either. He’s _covered_ in them. He starts wearing concealer to cover them, not wanting anyone to think he’s been fighting. He’d worry about his soulmate getting into fights, but…they’re just a kid.

No, this is _much_ worse. 

 

Eggsy spends his tenth birthday in the hospital. He asks mom if his soulmate will be mad at him for getting hurt so much. She cries. 

 

The years pass with increasingly severe injuries, and Merlin starts pulling records from child services. Every time an abused kid is taken in, he looks up their history. Reads their files. Tries to see if the injuries they were brought in with match up. 

They never do.

This just worries Merlin more, because his soulmate - this kid, this poor kid - is getting the shit beaten out of him and _nobody’s noticed._ No one has saved him, and Merlin is starting to doubt anyone ever will. 

 

The years go by. 

Bruises get worse. Bones are broken. 

Merlin worries every day, but there’s nothing he can do. 

He’s tempted to get a tattoo, something like emergency numbers or his own name or just a threatening phrase, but he doesn’t know how well that would be received. He doesn’t want to endanger the kid. 

 

Years pass. 


	2. Chapter 2

Eggsy tucked his necklace back into his shirt, feeling the familiar weight. It was a comfort, really, more than anything. The knowledge that he had someone to call should he ever need to cash in that one favor, that thing that was worth a life. 

He’d never had a problem big enough to warrant the call. He’d thought about it, wondering what it would be like to call and ask for Dean to be taken away, but he knew that the chances of that working out were slim. 

Still, every time Daisy cried, he thought about it. Over and over, he considered the call, and over and over, he rejected the idea. 

He headed into the living room to check on his sister, disgusted when he was greeted with his mother and Dean making out on the couch. 

Gross. 

A brief conversation later and he was practically shoved out the door, cash in hand - told to fuck off for a while while they had a threesome or something. Eggsy didn’t really give a shit what they did, so long as no one bothered Daisy. 

He went to the pub, texting his friends to have them meet him there. 

They commiserated for a while, bitching about Dean, only to have it turn out that Rotti and his gang were there, too.

A little argument went down, and the next thing Eggsy knew, he had nicked Rotti’s keys and his car and was driving around in circles, playing with the coppers.

And then there was a _fuckin_ dog.

Eggsy couldn’t hurt a living thing if he tried. Well, he _could,_ but not an _innocent_ living thing. And dogs? Dogs were the most innocent creatures in the universe. All they wanted was love. 

So yeah, he swerved out of the way. And crashed. And then he told his pals to fuck off because, hey, why should they _all_ go down. 

And then there he was, sitting in the interrogation room at the police station, refusing to tell them his friend’s names. 

Prison didn’t sound too bad - at least he wouldn’t get smashed up by Dean every day - but Eggsy knew damn well that if he wasn’t around, his mum and Daisy would become the new targets. So he did the only thing he knew to do.

He cashed in his favor. 

 

Harry fucking Hart was a badass. 

He’d just _obliterated_ those assholes, and then strolled out like it wasn’t a huge deal when yeah, it fuckin’ _was_. 

Eggsy walked home and arrived to a pissed off Dean who threatened him with a knife to the throat, but Eggsy wouldn’t say a damned word. He remembered when he was little, and he’d been looking for someone who’d been shot, looking for his soulmate. He remembered looking up at Harry Hart and realizing that _this could be him._ And so he didn’t breathe a word. 

And then Harry’s voice came outta nowhere and told him to rendezvous at the tailor’s and Eggsy was off without a word. 

 

Merlin blinked lazily at the potential that Galahad was putting forward.

He was a lot like Merlin was, once, really - rough and full of anger, ready to strike out at anything. But he held himself with military bearing and while he wasn’t polite, he wasn’t outright rude either. 

“Eggsy,” Harry had called him.  
What an odd name. 

 

Merlin loves the water test. He can usually tell, based on it, who will do well and who most certainly _will not._ And Eggsy…

Eggsy was neither. 

He’d not had the quick, analytical thought process to do physics and determine where to get air. But he _had_ caught on to the two-way mirror and that saved him. Not to mention the fact that, even underwater, he’d managed to punch his way through inch-thick glass. That was some serious strength. 

 

It wasn’t until he got back to his office that he noticed his knuckles were bleeding.

“Galahad,” Merlin called, brain already piecing things together. “What was that you said, about Eggsy’s home life?”

 

So. Merlin had pieced together that this recruit was his soulmate. But that didn’t mean he could show favoritism. Instead, he made it a point to keep Eggsy on his toes just like the rest of them. He paired him with Charlie often, for example, knowing the two hated each other. He lied, he cheated, he did everything he could to keep _all_ the candidates on edge, but especially Eggsy.

And then Harry got injured.

Merlin was determined to treat Eggsy the same as all the others, but the second he saw Eggsy’s terrified, heartbroken face, he melted. He gave the best advice he could - _focus on the test, make him proud -_ and treated him a bit more kindly. 

This went well, up until the parachutes.

Eggsy yelled at him, as though Merlin had personally victimized the boy. So Merlin had beckoned him closer, and pulled the cord, sending Eggsy flying back. 

He strolled away feeling slightly guilty, but Eggsy had to learn. 

Nothing in their lives could be taken at face value. 

Not even a soul bond, it seemed. 

 

After that, Eggsy seemed more motivated than ever in his training. Especially when Harry woke up.

Merlin ignored Harry’s knowing look when he allowed the boy to handle his trusted clipboard, and snatched it back, only for Harry to push his luck and steal it as well. 

Valentine was their adversary, it seemed, which meant Merlin had work to do. He didn’t have time to be fretting over Eggsy. 

Not that he wouldn’t _find_ time to, because he most certainly would. Worrying about his soulmate seemed to be an inescapable fact of his life these days. 

 

Harry went undercover. Eggsy passed the train test. 

 

Eggsy failed the dog test.

 

Merlin was distraught, terrified for Eggsy’s sake. The boy could _not_ return to his former home. He couldn’t live with Dean Baker again. Merlin refused to allow it. 

Luckily, Harry intervened. Eggsy stayed at his manor while Harry headed to Kentucky. 

 

Harry went and got himself shot. 

 

Eggsy kills Arthur. 

Eggsy comes straight to Merlin with the phone and the chip. 

V-Day is on its way, and they’re the only ones who can stop it. 


	3. Chapter 3

Eggsy suited up, and Merlin took a moment to appreciate the sight. The suit flattered him. Well cut and styled, perfectly designed for him. 

Merlin stared Eggsy down for a second before sighing, and quietly muted his microphone and Eggsy’s. 

They needed to talk. 

“Eggsy,” Merlin said. “Before you go in there, we need to talk.” 

“I’m tellin’ ya, Merlin, I got this,” Eggsy protested immediately, but Merlin held up a hand to stop him.

“I’m not fightin’ you on that. I just need to tell ya…” He paused, letting out a huff of a breath. “When you were little - you would’a been about three - did you feel a bullet wound?”

Eggsy froze. “Yeah,” he admitted. “S’how I knew ‘Arry was my soulmate.”

Merlin blinked. “Harry?”

“Ya,” Eggsy said. “Don’t look at me funny, a’right? I don’t need no pity.” 

“I’m not -…,” Merlin couldn’t help it, he started laughing. “Eggsy, lad, Harry’s not your soulmate.”

“The fuck do you mean by that?”

Merlin rolled his eyes, reaching out and pinching Eggsy hard on one arm. Eggsy let out a cry, hand going to the point. “The fuck was that for?”

Merlin didn’t say anything, just rolled up his sleeve, exposing the area where a new, small bruise was forming.

Eggsy was speechless for a moment, before murmuring, “You’re my soulmate?” 

“Yeah,” Merlin confirmed. “Was right pissed when I noticed the age difference, but soulmates are soulmates.” He suddenly looked at Eggsy - right in his eyes, with a sad look - and added, “You know this doesn’t have to mean anything, right? If you don’t want me, you ain’t gotta have me.” 

“Shut the fuck up,” Eggsy said, and kissed him.

 

They kissed each other for what felt like days, but were interrupted by Roxy’s voice in their ears, asking if they were still there. Merlin switched the mics back on and returned to piloting the plane, smiling at Eggsy as he left for the cockpit. 

They’d worked it out, and now, V-Day needed to be stopped. Merlin had a future to look forward to, for once in his life, and he’d be damned if he let Valentine take it away. 

 

V-Day came and went with hellish consequences, and then there was only Merlin and Roxy and Eggsy, and a whole lot of cleanup. 

Every Kingsman employee that survived - three separate agents had been among Valentine’s chosen - voted on who would take over, and soon, all the fingers were pointed Merlin’s way. 

Merlin let out a long-suffering sigh an accepted. 

He then had the task of appointing the next few Kingsman. As the rest of the world agencies focused on cleaning up the mess that was V-Day, Merlin focused on lining up three separate rounds of training. Of course, they would need someone to preside over them…and as it happens, it position of Arthur’s right hand, Merlin, just opened up. 

And so, Eggsy became Merlin, and Eideard became Arthur, and soulmates became the frontrunners of Kingsman. 

 

A week passed. Eggsy moved in with Eideard - well, “moved” was relative. He didn’t have any things with him, really, except the few things he’d picked up from his flat while Dean and the others were out one day - which mostly consisted of a few parts of his “chav” wardrobe he refused to leave behind. There was also a small assortment of snowglobes, which Eggsy apparently collected when he was little. 

Eggsy had admitted that while looking slightly ashamed and stuttering a bit, as though he expected to be ridiculed for having interests. Eideard wanted to cuddle him and reassure him that everything was okay. 

He did just that.

 

Before Eggsy really got comfortable, he said there was something he had to do; so, Merlin and Eggsy had requisitioned a car and drove to the pub Eggsy’s stepfather frequented. 

About ten minutes later, Eggsy and a shaken-looking Michelle Unwin. 

“Good afternoon, ma’am,” Eideard greeted. 

“…Who’re you?” Michelle asked, hesitantly climbing into the car. 

“The bloke I know, the tailor,” Eggsy explained. “And…my soulmate.”

Michelle gave a small gasp. “Oh, _Eggsy.”_

Eideard turned, extending a hand. “Eideard Giles, ma’am, at your service. Eggsy was my best friend’s apprentice, but I’m afraid he’s passed. I took Eggsy on as my own, and he’s proven himself to be quite talented.” 

“I bet,” Michelle murmured. She seemed in shock. “You’re not just givin’ him the job ‘cause you’re together, ya?” 

Eideard snorted. “Eggsy wouldn’t tolerate a pity offering like that. No, he earned it, fair and square. Competed with other apprentices and everything.”

“You competed for the job?” Michelle asked. “And you won?”

“Not technically,” Eggsy said, blushing a bit. “Roxy won, but only by a hair. But a bunch of tailors died in that weird mini-apocalypse thing, so they needed me to join up, too.” 

“Don’t worry,” Eideard said. “I wouldn’t just give a job to someone who didn’t deserve it. Eggsy is one of the most talented Kingsmen we’ve seen come through.”

“Eggsy as a tailor,” Michelle murmured, still in shock. “I never would have guessed. And you said you have a house?”

“It’s mine,” Eideard filled in. “Eggsy wanted a place to live for his family, and I’ve got a big house with a lot of empty space.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Michelle began but Eideard waved her off. 

“It’s nothing much. I like having Eggsy around, and I’m sure you and the wee miss will be just as pleasant company.” 

“Hopefully not the same kind,” Eggsy blurted, and Eideard laughed.

“You’re my only one, leannan,” Eideard reassured. 

Eggsy turned scarlet. “ _Mer- Ar- Eideard.”_ He stuttered through Eideard’s names. “Don’t say stuff like that.” 

Eideard just grinned. “Been waitin’ years to use that word. Let an old man have his fun.”

 

They swung by the flat to pick up Daisy and the girls’ things, before heading back home. Pulling up in front of Eideard’s manor, a large estate with a beautiful garden and a large pool, he took a moment to savor the looks on Michelle and Daisy’s faces.

“I know, right?” Eggsy said, hands on his hips. “Can’t wait to make this kind of bank workin’ in that shop. Workin’ with posh tits every day has its perks.” 

“Oh, Eggsy,” Michelle murmured. “We can’t…”

“Don’t be silly,” Eideard said, already grabbing their bags from the car. “I know you’re not used to this, but it’s all for the best. Eggsy and I like bein’ around each other, Eggsy likes bein’ with you and the bairn, so this is the best option, at least for now. We’ve even planned it out. Once Eggsy starts work, he can put you up in a flat by yourselves, if you’d rather that.” 

“How long have you two known each other?” Michelle asked, suddenly. 

“Couple’a months,” Eggsy said. “Why?”

“This is just so _fast,”_ she said. “We’ve just met and I’m moving in with you, and Eggsy’s only known you a little while, and he’s always been too trusting-…”

“Oi,” Eggsy protested. 

Michelle kept on, though, as though uninterrupted. “And I just want to know how I’m supposed to know that this is any better than where we were.” 

Eideard looked like he’d been struck. “Ma’am,” he said. “The difference is that I’ve waited 50 years for this opportunity, and I will treasure it every day. The difference is that I would never deliberately hurt Eggsy or you or Daisy, and should the time ever come when I accidentally cock this up, Eggsy has support systems in place and things he can do, places he can go. He could get a flat by tomorrow if he spoke to the right Kingsman.”

Michelle’s shoulders relaxed a little, and she turned to look at the house, teary-eyed. “Look, Daisy-girl,” she murmured, pointing at the garden. “What’s that?”

“Home,” Eggsy answered instead. “That’s home.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this, but consider this whole fic more of a prequel to the real story than anything. I have a longer fic, maybe ~20 chapters, where Harry returns and Eggsy and Merlin adjust to living together and Kingsman faces a new enemy.


End file.
